For many job seekers, an email message is the first and only communication they will ever have with potential employers.
Improve the response rate of your emails
Those emailing employers can drastically improve their chances of getting a response by following a few simple rules
- Treat the email like a mini cover letter
- Personalize your email to the employer, rather than using a generic template
- Use 2-3 quick examples of how your skills and experience will benefit their company
- Use the SAR method of resume writing to make strong points
- Close with a paragraph about how you are excited to set up an interview, and that you have enclosed a resume and cover letter to that end
- Use a relevant subject line in the email: “Marketing Sales Position, Resume of John B Smith”
The email subject line
The headline is the first sales opportunity – the hiring manager will either open the email (success!) or tag it as junk and move on. To increase the ‘open rate’ of your emailed resumes, use a relevant email subject line. For a sales marketing position, it would look like this: “Sales Marketing Position – Resume of John B Smith”
Email example
Dear Hiring Manager,
Your ad for a Freelance Graphic Design is a perfect match for my professional skills and capabilities:
- Experience designing and hand coding websites and banners for on and off-site advertising campaigns
- Ability to write clean HTML and CSS code to reduce page load times and increase search engine visibility
- Designed and implemented multiple lead-generation campaigns involving landing pages, newsletters, banner ads, PPC text ads and SEO keyword blogging.
Attached for your consideration is my resume and cover letter in PDF format, that outlines my qualifications in further detail.
I will follow up with you next week to establish a mutually convenient time to for an initial interview. In the meantime please feel free to call me at (888) 888-8888. I look forward to speaking soon
Thank you for your time,
[your name]
Attachment
Employers are overwhelmed by resumes
Potential employers are being overrun with resumes. For most positions, they can expect 100-300 resumes. Some applicants are qualified for the position, but most people are not. Since employers also have a business to run, they need to be extremely efficient at sorting out the qualified applicants from the ’spammers’ (people who mass-mail their resume to all available jobs). They do this by being picky and by looking for fast ways to disqualify people.
Employers disqualify applicants beginning with their emails
Since email is often the first contact, it’s almost like the mailed-in cover letters of yesteryear. If an email is too short, generic, boring or if it contains grammatical errors or misspellings, the employer will not continue reading. Job seekers need to make their emails a little longer (2-4 paragraphs at most), punchy and spell-checked.
Be a master at selling yourself
A good sales person knows that each stage of a sale is, in essence, a mini-sale; every point of contact is an opportunity to move the sales forward. For job applicants, this means considering emails as one step in a long process of selling yourself to potential employers. Since it is the first step, it would be wise not to skip this critical juncture in applying for a position.
Two final words: marketing speak
Almost all of the resume books/example websites use the same kind of language: over-formalized marketing language. I recommend it and use it myself, but it may not be the best choice for every industry. Web design, marketing and sales people are adept at spotting this language, and probably are a little bored by it. For these industries only, it’s ok to drop the formality slightly, and sell an authentic version of you, rather than one masked by too much ‘resume-speak.’
